Did you know that cranberries are being harvested right now in America?

Farmers in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and parts of British Columbia and Quebec are getting into flooded bogs and grabbing fresh berries by the bucketful. In fact, millions of pounds will be harvested throughout the season, which lasts from mid September until around Thanksgiving in mid November.

Hang on, back up a bit, ‘What’s a bog?’.

Good question reader! I thought you’d never ask.

A bog is a sandy marsh where cranberries grow on vines. The name makes it sound worse than it is, don’t you think? During harvest time bogs are flooded and the water is moved around with a machine called an ‘eggbeater’ making the cranberries fall off the vine and float (and easier to collect – see picture above).

Here’s a nice close up shot of the vibrant cranberries being collected via the wet harvesting method explained above. These berries will be used in juices, sauces and other Ocean Spray products.

Cranberries can also be dry harvested. This involves picking the berries directly from the vine with a special mechanical picker that looks like a large lawn mower. The cranberries are transported for packing in large sacks and then sold fresh at supermarkets and grocers. Unfortunately we cannot buy fresh cranberries here in Australia, so we’ll have to make do with the ones Ocean Spray dry into craisins or transform into juice and sauce.

If you are interested in finding out more information about cranberry harvesting then click here to visit the Ocean Spray website.

One last thing. Drop by tomorrow for a delicious and unusual breakfast recipe using Blueberry Flavoured Craisins. See you then!

Christie x

Disclosure: Fig & Cherry and Ocean Spray are working together as part of a paid sponsorship.